A Missouri couple, Sarah and Kris Everson, have been charged with staging an elaborate hoax to fool people into believing they had sextuplets. Supposedly Sarah gave birth to the six babies on March 8. Stories about the multiple birth ran in local papers, and people who heard about the family's tight financial situation began to organize donations for them. Sarah also supplied the Associated Press with a photograph of herself looking very pregnant, as well as sonograms of the kids. The babies themselves were supposedly still in intensive care. But the authorities became suspicious when all the hospitals in the area stated that they had no clue who these people, or their babies, were. Turns out there were no babies. Just a bizarre scheme to con people into giving them money.

I write about birth hoaxes in Hippo Eats Dwarf, where I note that they're more common than you would think (Reality Rule 1.1: Just because a woman looks pregnant, it doesn't mean she is). Nowadays the most common birth scam is for a woman to pretend to be pregnant and then con a couple who want to adopt her child into supporting her until the baby is delivered. She lives in high style for a few months and then skips town. Multiple-birth hoaxes, such as the Missouri case, are quite rare, though as I note in the Gallery of Birth Hoaxes, there were a number of them from the 1930s to the 1950s, following the 1934 birth of the Dionne Quintuplets. But multiple-birth hoaxes began to go out of style once fertility drugs made multiple births more common. The phenomenon lost its novelty.

What surprises me about the Missouri case is that the couple must have known they couldn't keep the hoax going without, at some point, producing six babies. So what exactly was their plan? Obviously these weren't the most brilliant criminals in the world.

And it's in Grain Valley - a rather small place near Kansas City, with a population of just over 11,000. How they thought they could get away with it is beyond me.

Someone I know who lives near them said that a neighbor even reported seeing the babies at one point.... bizarre!

Posted by OriginalSim on Wed Apr 12, 2006 at 01:33 PM

What I'm trying to figure out is was she faking the entire pregnancy or just the number of children born?

Posted by Tru in Other Words on Wed Apr 12, 2006 at 05:51 PM

Damn, I've been telling people that I'm pregnant with sextuplets for months now. These people have ruined it for EVERYONE. Grrrrr.

Posted by Cranky Media Guy on Wed Apr 12, 2006 at 07:57 PM

Can you really call them criminals? I don't think faking pregnancy is illegal or anything. Stupid, yes. Illegal, no.

Posted by Dracul on Wed Apr 12, 2006 at 07:57 PM

The criminal part was when they took money from people.

Posted by The Curator in San Diego on Wed Apr 12, 2006 at 10:04 PM

"Obviously these weren't the most brilliant criminals in the world. "
Thank god that it was a hoax, otherwise there would have been 6 more simpletons.

Posted by Unfairly Balanced in Earth on Thu Apr 13, 2006 at 04:54 AM

I live about 150 miles from this town, and today was the first I heard of it. Of course since it was revealed as a scam, it made the headlines locally, Yahoo, and MofH... Guess it wasn't that big of a story 'til it was revealed a hoax...

i beleive that it is wrong what they did to the people who where nice enough to help them. But they shouldn't be put in jail for it.That's stupied. something sould be done.

Posted by natitla in alabama on Wed Apr 19, 2006 at 11:33 AM

I believe that they should be trail and put into jail. This is a theft just like any other. How can people be so na

Posted by Giselle in New York on Wed Apr 19, 2006 at 12:39 PM

I live in St. Louis, MO and this is the first I am hearing of this. This was a very stupid and immoral crime to commit. Stupid because they had to know that the public wasn't just going to go away and would want to eventually see 6 babies. Immoral because of how wrong it was to use the birth a baby (or in this case, multiple babies) to con people out of money. Taking the money was the illegal part of the scheme and I hope these two were punished. I also hope that these two don't actually have any children of their own because I can't imagine what type of parents they would be.

Posted by Jonelle B. in St. Louis, MO on Wed Apr 19, 2006 at 12:54 PM

You know if I had given these two people money it would have been pretty lame. Losing money to a couple of con artists like that. I'd probably complain for a good while after the fact, try to get the money back, etc. Then I'd kick myself hard for being so naive. Should they be incriminated for accepting gifts from people? It sounds like the donations arranged were merely gifts of money that people had given "unofficially". Like a friend giving me $20 as a gift. I don't think it's tax deductible and I don't really think it would be right to try these people in court for accepting gifts based on a lie. For the most part those who are scammed pretty much just lose out. I might be wrong. Anyway, maybe this will teach people not to be such suckers.

Posted by dan "the baker" baker in san francisco, CA on Wed Apr 19, 2006 at 09:02 PM

I think that it is funny so you all jack off of there case they were making a joke.